‘Mummy wants a boob job for Christmas’: Inside the life of a professional Santa
When a chatty little girl visited Father Christmas, the last thing Paul Haslam expected to be on her wish list was a boob job.
“They were two sisters, about two and five, and the older one was doing all the talking,” the professional Santa Claus tells Sky News.
A Barbie dreamhouse, some Teletubbies toys and sweets were all on the five-year-old’s Christmas list.
“I said to her, ‘Thank you, is that all?’ And she thought for a moment and went: ‘Mummy wants a boob job’,” he says, laughing.
“You should have seen the dad’s face.”
Paul has been working as Santa for 16 years, a side hustle he started after spotting a poster in his local garden centre recruiting a “tubby guy to come work for us in four weeks in December”.
“I thought it sounded like a laugh,” he says. “The first time I did it I was absolutely hooked.
“I was in the grotto for eight hours and when I came out, I said to the guy in charge, ‘that was so much fun, I should be paying you’.”
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Inside a Santa Claus academy
‘The sack didn’t open’
His career as Mr Claus has even taken him to the stage with Mariah Carey.
“I got a call asking what I was doing the next day, and was told Mariah was performing in Manchester and her Santa had let her down.
“The proviso was, make sure you’ve got your sack – they’re going to fill it with cuddly toys and you and Mariah will throw them into the crowd.”
But when the big moment came, the sack didn’t open.
“The guy who had tightened it was her bodyguard, he was huge, and it took us ages to get it open.”
Paul has taken to the stage with Mariah Carey
‘Sausage factories’
Gary Cordes, a former solicitor, also took up being a Santa as a fun way to fill retirement.
He too started out in garden centres, but says the heavy footfall venues are just “sausage factories”.
“It is about people being pushed through, no time to talk to the children,” he says.
“In one, I was stuck in this windowless room for nine hours and was absolutely wrecked by the end of it. I want to engage with the families, actually have time with them.”
Gary is a former solicitor who found a fun way to fill retirement
Similarly, Paul says he once worked in a venue that told him he had to get each family in and out in 30 seconds.
“They just wanted to take people’s money and get them out.”
Gary now works at larger venues, including recently at the O2 Arena during Disney On Ice, as well as working corporate events.
“I love to interact with the kids, I try and move around the room or sit on the floor in front of the fireplace. They don’t often expect Santa to move around,” he says.
Gary working as Santa at the O2 Arena
‘My son thinks I am helping Santa’
Simon Young is young in every sense – at 37, he’s on the lower end of the age scale to work as a Santa. But when their existing Santa dropped out two years ago at Reuthe’s The Lost Garden Of Sevenoaks, he agreed to be a last-minute replacement.
“Because Santa is usually quite old, as you go into winter that can be quite unreliable with dropping out because of flu, or illness, and that’s what happened to us. We had three days to find someone.”
Simon has five children, aged from six to 16, and his youngest still believes in Father Christmas
“He knows I am Santa but thinks that the real Santa asked me for help to see the children here. He thinks the real Santa comes to see me, drops off loads of presents and I then give them out to other children.”
Recently, his youngest son came home saying a fellow pupil on the playground had told him Santa wasn’t real.
His seven-year-old was quick to reassure his brother, telling him the child at his school was being stupid, “because where else did presents come from, does he think parents just buy them?”
Simon working as Santa
Hilarious to heartbreaking
Not every child enjoys their visit to Santa, says Gary.
“If they’re not old enough, sometimes they just scream because they are scared,” he says. “So, I just say to the parents, we will have a good chat next year. I don’t want them to have a bad experience.”
They can sometimes come in with a big, long list, and Simon says he will look to the parents: “But I never commit to anything.”
Simon is a former member of the Royal Navy who served during the Gulf War, but says this job is “higher pressure”.
“There is so much weight attached to it, you don’t want to say the wrong thing and ruin someone’s Christmas,” he says.
And not every request a child has is one that’s easy to be filled.
“My first year, second day, I had a little girl who said she didn’t want her terminally ill dad to die,” says Simon. “She had been looking forward to coming to see Santa so she could ask him that.”
Paul grows emotional when he talks about similar experiences.
“I have had children ask if grandma or grandpa can come visit them again,” he says.
“I hold my hand up to them – we aren’t allowed to hug them – and I say that’s not in my bit of magic. My bit of magic is different. But I’ll tell you what, when I get back, if I can find them I will have a word and I’ll tell them you still love them.
“That’s the best I can do.”
Paul has been working as Santa for more than a decade
The cost of Santa’s beard
Being a Santa is not going to make you rich, especially not when you invest in your own costume, says Paul.
His beard is made from the belly hair of a yak and cost him £650.
“I spent a week’s wages on a wig and beard,” he says. “But you don’t do it for the money.”
And while some opportunities can be lucrative – Gary was offered a stint at Lapland for £1,500 a week – Paul has heard of companies abroad offering just £50 a day to Santa and his elves.
“I also did an event with a reindeer – the reindeer got paid more than I did,” Paul says.
“You’ve got to love the job, you don’t do it for the money.”
Pauline Quirke has been diagnosed with dementia and will be stepping away from acting, her husband has confirmed.
The 65-year-old star was best known for her role in the hit sitcom Birds Of A Feather, playing Sharon Theodopolopodous opposite Linda Robson, who played her sister Tracey.
Steve Sheen, who has been married to Quirke since 1996, said she had been diagnosed with the condition in 2021.
In a statement, he said it was “with a heavy heart” that she was stepping back from her professional and commercial duties because of her diagnosis.
He went on: “We are deeply grateful for the support of her peers, the public and the dedicated staff and Principals at PQA [Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts].
“We kindly request privacy and understanding for Pauline and our family during this difficult period. Pauline just wants to spend time with her family, children and grandchildren.”
Quirke with her husband Steve Sheen
Quirke and her husband, who worked as an executive producer on Birds Of A Feather, have two children together. Their son Charlie is also an actor.
Quirke’s family have pledged future support to Alzheimer’s Research UK and say they will be working alongside the charity to raise funds for research and awareness of dementia.
The statement also drew comparisons with the work done to raise awareness for the cause by the family of late EastEnders actress Dame Barbara Windsor, who died in 2020, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease six years previously.
Sheen went on: “We are very proud of what our family friend Scott Mitchell is doing with Alzheimer’s Research UK in his late wife Dame Barbara Windsor’s name. So, when we feel able, we will also align ourselves with the charity.”
One of the most recognisable stars of British comedy, Quirke began acting as a child getting her own TV show as a teenager – Pauline’s Quirkes – where she frequently worked with Linda Robson.
Quirke receiving her MBE in 2022. Pic: PA
The pair were brought together again in 1989 in Birds of a Feather, where the roles of mismatched sisters brought together after their husbands are sent to jail for armed robbery turned them into household names.
A female-led comedy, Lesley Joseph played the third lead in the show, as nosey neighbour Dorien Green.
Running for nine years on the BBC, it attracted nearly 20 million viewers at its height. It was rebooted by ITV in 2014 and ran for six more years.
Quirke did not return for a Christmas special in 2020.
In a career spanning over half a decade, Quirke has starred in more than 60 TV and film productions, including Broadchurch, Carrie’s War, North and South, Casualty, Cold Blood, My Family and Emmerdale.
In 1990 Quirke won a British Comedy award for her role in Birds Of A Feather and in 1996 she was nominated for a BAFTA for her performance as a convicted murderess in The Sculptress.
In 1995 Quirke and Robson appeared on the BBC documentary Jobs For The Girls, trying out a new profession each week, frequently with comedic results.
In 2007 The Pauline Quirke Academy Of Performing Arts opened, offering classes in singing, dancing, and acting for children from four to 18. Based in Buckinghamshire, it operates across the country.
The academy said it was “deeply moved by the messages that we have received” following news of Quirke’s diagnosis, adding, “it has been wonderful to see how many lives Pauline has touched through her work”.
They said teaching at the academy would “continue as normal”.
Quirke was awarded an MBE in 2022 in recognition of her work with young people, contributions to entertainment and dedication to charitable causes.
One in two people will be directly affected by dementia – either by developing the condition themselves, caring for someone with it, or both – according to Alzheimer’s Research UK.
Police have launched an investigation after Gladiators star Apollo was reportedly stalked and harassed.
The 33-year-old, whose real name is Alex Gray, is said to have been targeted by a woman both on the set of the TV show in Sheffield and at his temporary accommodation in the city.
South Yorkshire Police said they were “aware of reports of a man in his 30s being subjected to stalking and harassment”.
A spokesperson added: “An investigation has been launched and enquiries are ongoing.”
Gray told The Sun On Sunday: “There was an incident. That’s as much as I can say, until something comes of it and there’s action taken.
“Maybe there might not be. I’m still waiting to hear. The police are doing their thing.”
Apollo, far left, in a Gladiators celebrity special broadcast earlier this month. Pic: BBC
The newspaper also reported that the BBC and production company Hungry Bear Media had arranged for extra “support and protection” around the Utilita Arena Sheffield and outside the rented apartment block where performers stay during filming.
Gray was previously a rugby union player for the England rugby sevens team before transferring to NFL American football.
He was among the 16 “superhumans” who joined the Gladiators line-up when the sports entertainment show was rebooted by the BBC last year.
Gladiators season two launched on BBC One last weekend after millions of viewers tuned in to the first series.
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The original American Gladiators series was broadcast in the US in 1989, with a UK version following in 1992.
The first UK show was presented by Ulrika Jonsson and footballer John Fashanu, while the reboot is fronted by father and son duo Bradley and Barney Walsh.
Gladiators was brought back on Sky between 2008 and 2009, with the first season hosted by Ian Wright and Kirsty Gallacher. Caroline Flack replaced Gallacher for its second series.
The BBC and Hungry Bear Media declined to comment.
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